December 10, 2017

Living room and kitchen after The Los Angeles condominium Jay Falamaki bought several years ago was like scores of others in Southern California. “It was boring,” Falamaki says of the 860-square-foot condo’s white walls, vinyl floors and beige carpeting. “It was very basic with no character at all.” But bland surroundings would work for Falamaki, a native of Iran who studied set design at the American Film Institute in Hollywood, and who now works as a freelance designer. Kitchen before While his peers who own condos tend to put off remodeling until they move up into a house, Falamaki did not want to wait. “I’m here now,” he thought. “This is my everyday life. I must enjoy it.” But to get the two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo from where it was—dull—to where Falamaki wanted to be—dynamic—would cost tens of thousands of dollars, which he did not have. So: he decided to do…